The invention relates generally to the field of microfluidic devices. More particularly, the invention relates to materials for use in microfluidic devices and methods of making the microfluidic devices.
Microfluidic devices were first fabricated in the early 1990s in glass and silicon using traditional semiconductor processing procedures. The robustness and surface properties of these devices made them ideal for a wide range of chemical and biochemical applications including electrophoretic separations, organic synthesis, polymerase chain reaction, and immunoassays. However, high fabrication costs have driven microfluidic device fabrication to less expensive materials, such as polymers.
Typically used polymers in microfluidic devices may include polydimethylsiloxane, polycarbonate, polymethyl-methacrylate, and the like. These polymer materials often have less desirable surface properties including high surface energy, poor barrier properties, and low chemical resistance. Procedures have been developed to eliminate some of these surface properties issue and to functionalize surfaces of plastic devices for the attachment of analyte molecules such as DNA, proteins, and antibodies. However, these procedures may be complex and may result in poor efficiency and poor spatial resolution of the microfluidic channels.
Typically, to get desirable surface properties the microfluidic channels are packed with one or more materials having the desirable properties. However, these packing procedures are complex, time-consuming, and often result in blocked channels.
There exists a need for a suitable material for use in microfluidic devices, which is configured to be functionalized to obtain desirable properties in the microfluidic channels. Also, there exists a need for providing a fast and efficient method of fabrication of microfluidic devices to reduce the cost of fabrication of these devices.